Russian demographics not helped by state involvement

Under new rules put in place in Moscow, parents are encouraged to turn in their neighbors and preschool teachers must watch for signs of abuse.

Russian parents are concerned with the increasingly close attention being paid
to their children by civil servants. Although official statistics show that
fewer people are being deprived of their parental rights, (56,000 in 2010, down
from 74,000 in 2008) there is a strong sentiment within society that the state
is intent on interfering more and more in family life.

There are,
indeed, grounds for this concern. Official statistics do not indicate the
number of children removed from parental care by child protection services
before the case goes to court; no one knows how often this is happening across
Russia. Yet each instance of such removal of children is cause for scandal and engenders
heated discussions both online and in the media. Since no explanation is given
as to when and why children may be removed from families, panic is mounting and
no clarity is emerging.

The
situation was exacerbated recently when Russian regional authorities introduced
new regulations on the protection of children. For instance, all Moscow preschool
teachers now have to inspect children for signs of physical abuse, report to
the authorities if parents pick up their children drunk, and organize art
competitions that, according to the authors of the regulations, will help establish
the level of wellbeing in the preschoolers’ families.

Parents are increasingly
being asked to listen to what is happening in neighboring apartments and report
any “noise generated by serious argument” to the police. Many conscientious citizens
are expected to turn
themselves in; parents have
been given questionnaires developed by the Moscow Education Department that
include queries such as “Would you hit your child in a public place?”

It is not
surprising that people are concerned about the state’s sudden interest in children and ear that child protective services, which
are invested with unspecified powers,
could remove children from their families for no real reason.

Yury Kotov,
Executive Secretary of the Moscow Commission for the Affairs of Minors and
Protection of Their Rights, finds nothing unusual about the state’s activities:
“We have signed a UNICEF agreement, so all this is part of the policy
implemented by the city.”

The
situation is aggravated by the country’s demographic tendencies. While civil
servants have an answer to any question the people might ask, their rhetoric is
defeated by hard facts.

“According
to demographic analysts, population growth can be ensured only if 60 percent of the
country’s families have [at least] three children. At present, only 6 percent
of Russian families do so. For wealthy Europe and the United States, this
figure is not much higher, at only 13-15 percent,” said Anatoly Antonov, who
holds a chair in sociology and demographics at Moscow State University.
“And while large families are becoming so valuable, different sentiments are
prevailing in our society. Instead of providing support, the modern state is beginning
to discriminate
against such families.”

Antonov thinks that children are removed from families under a specific interpretation
of the International Convention of the Rights of the Child by civil servants
primarily concerned with material benefits. According to him, until the family
becomes “a state-independent institution,” the problem will remain.